The organization’s leader met with President Poroshenko and discussed prospects of cooperation with Ukraine

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde met with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The officials negotiated on prospects of cooperation and the 2016 state budget recently passed by the Ukrainian Parliament (Interfax-Ukraine).

“I guess it was very positive discussion, which I hope brings us closer to the Memorandum that both sides are now working on. And I hope the process will finish successfully”, Lagarde said.

She said another important topic of the talks was economic development and the current course of reforms in Ukraine.

President Poroshenko also said he was satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations. In his interview to Bloomberg TV channel, the Ukrainian leader said his country expects to get the third IMF loan in February. According to him, the sides are about to make the respective deal.

The four-year EFF program totaling about $17 billion opened in March 2015.The first tranche of $5 billion originally foresaw a quarterly revision of the program, the issue of another three tranches of about $1.5 billion each in 2015 and the decrease in quarterly tranches in 2016-2018 to $610 million.

Ukraine has so far received two IMF loans. Part of the sum went to cover the government expenses. Making the decision on providing the next loan, the IMF will assess how much of its commitments Ukraine fulfilled by late 2015. In case of positive decision, Ukraine might get the next loan in February 2016.